RE: Linux distribution suggestion for EPICS

[Vincent van Beveren via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Hi Han,

 

Thanks for your considerations. Indeed. At the moment our company is pretty much Windows based, but I dread to install EPICS on Windows natively, though it is supported. Especially if I want to add other tools and modules on the same system, I bet I would run into errors I don’t understand.

 

From your answer and previous responses I am more inclined to Debian. That said we would mostly be using Beckhoff PLCs over a network connection, so the chances I need to compile kernel drivers is slim, but not excluded. Still, as I mentioned previously I’m not in favor of Ubuntu. Maybe plain Debian or MX Linux.

 

Thanks!

Vincent

 

 

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> On Behalf Of Han Lee via Tech-talk
Sent: donderdag 2 november 2023 18:32
To: EPICS Tech Talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: Linux distribution suggestion for EPICS

 

Ralph's explanation of Linux OS distribution is really good! 

 

And I will add a few more.

• OS Cost
• OS maintenance cost (Even if Linux is known as Free, we need to maintain it seriously)
• Kernel driver usage (If there are a lot of Embedded systems or customized hardware, one should consider Kernel LTS. In my experience, Debian (not variant) is good, and Redhat and its variant are terrible.)

At the ALS-U, our OS at this moment is Rocky 9.2 LTS. That is not my preference, but our Unix group decided it. :)

 

Best,

Han

 

On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 9:22 AM Ralph Lange via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov> wrote:

Hi Vincent,

 

Take your expected lifecycle times into consideration. What will be more important: newest tools and compiler versions or stability/robustness? For controls, people often prefer the "slower" series (Debian/Ubuntu-LTS, RHEL/Alma) over the "faster" ones (Ubuntu, Fedora).

Drama aside: in terms of EPICS support, there's not much difference between the RedHat and Debian families of distros.

 

Cheers,
~Ralph

 

--

Jeong Han Lee, Dr.rer.nat.

Staff Scientist and Engineer

Cell: +1 510 384 3868

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1699-2660